News

News

GFOA is always on the lookout for news items that will be useful for finance professionals, research that might help you do your job better, and legal and regulatory updates you need to know about. Check the GFOA news page for the updates and any relevant GFOA announcements.

143 Documents

Pages

Defined benefit plans are inherently more cost-efficient than defined contribution plans, according to A Better Bang for the Buck, an updated study by the National Institute on Retirement Security. A typical DB plan provides equivalent retirement benefits at about half the cost of a DC plan, and 29% lower cost than an “ideal” DC plan modeled with generous assumptions, according to the study.

The GFOA joined the State and Local Legal Center and several other national associations representing states and local governments in filing amicus, or “friend-of-the-court,” briefs before the Supreme Court in two important tax-related cases. Decisions in both cases are expected this spring.

Cutbacks in public pensions could hurt worker quality, as research shows that pensions help recruit and retain high-quality workers, according to a brief from the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. One indicator of quality is the wage that a worker can earn in the private sector, and by this measure, states and localities consistently have a “quality gap” – the workers they lose have a higher private-sector wage than those they gain, the center’s research found.

Citing an “urgent goal of saving public pensions amid persistent low funded levels and a burgeoning movement to disassemble them, Callan Investments Institute issued talking points “to move the discussion forward around the importance of DB plans.” The research paper cites seven points of discussion, and follows with research, data, and actuarial considerations to back each one.

State and local governments are hiring again, but theyre having difficulty finding  and retaining  the right people. In a recent Governing article, Center for State and Local Government Excellence President and CEO Elizabeth K. Kellar asks if governments have a people problem.

The GFOA joined its partner national associations on an amicus, or friend of the court, brief filed by the State and Local Legal Center before the Supreme Court in the case of Alabama Department of Revenue v. CSX Transportation. In this case, the Court is asked to decide whether Alabamas requirement that railroads pay a 4% sales tax on diesel fuel, while trucks pay a 19% per gallon excise tax, and water carriers pay no tax, violates the Railroad Revitalization and Regulatory Reform Act (the 4-R Act), which prohibits states from taxing railroads in a discriminatory manner.

President Obama signed a short-term $1.012 trillion fiscal measure to keep the federal government running through December 11, 2014. The measure also includes an extension of the Internet Tax Freedom Act (ITFA) until that time. ITFA  the current law that prohibits state and local taxation of Internet access  would expire on November 1 without the language included in budget measure.

The GFOAs Executive Board approved three new best practices and one revised best practice on September 22, 2014. These documents provide recommendations to government finance officers in the areas of accounting, retirement benefits administration, and debt issuance.

Several associations that represent the interests of local governments, including the National League of Cities, the National Association of Counties, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, and the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors, filed comments with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in support of municipal broadband networks and voiced concerns with state laws that prohibit or limit their deployment.

Federal regulators are set to approve new liquidity standards on banks that could increase borrowing costs for state and local governments, according to reports from Bloomberg and other news outlets. The Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and Office of the Comptroller of Currency are scheduled to vote on September 3, 2014, on the new rules, which would require banks with at least $250 billion in assets to meet new liquidity requirements.

In the year ended June 30, 2014, U.S. state and local-government pension investments earned the highest returns seen in three years, according to a report from Wilshire Associates, as reported by Bloomberg. Public pension returns increased by 16.9%, the best performance since fiscal 2011, when returns increased by 21.2%. Funds with more than $1 billion in assets performed best, with a median increase of 17.4%, attributed to larger alternative asset allocations.

The GFOA joined its partner national associations on an amicus, or friend of the court, brief filed by the State and Local Legal Center before the Supreme Court in the case of Comptroller v. Wynne. In this case, the Supreme Court will determine whether the U.S. Constitution requires states to give a credit for taxes paid on income earned out-of-state.

On July 15, 2014, a group of bipartisan senators introduced the Marketplace and Internet Tax Fairness Act (MITFA, S. 2609), legislation that would combine the Marketplace Fairness Act that passed the Senate last year with a 10-year extension of the moratorium on Internet access taxes that is set to expire November 1, 2014.

On July 24, 2014, the Electric Power Board of Chattanooga, Tennessee, and the City of Wilson, North Carolina, filed separate petitions asking the FCC to consider whether their states laws prohibit the deployment of high-speed broadband services in a reasonable and timely manner. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has spoken repeatedly about his desire to address state laws that prohibit or restrict municipal broadband networks. These petitions provide the chairman the opportunity to take action.

The AICPA Governmental Audit Quality Center (GAQC) helps its members meet the challenges of performing quality audits. One significant industry the GAQC focuses resources on is audits of state and local entities. The AICPAs State and Local Governments Expert Panel (SLGEP) serves the needs of AICPA members on financial and business reporting and audit and attest matters. The Expert Panel protects the public interest by bringing together knowledgeable parties in the state and local government industry to deliberate and come to agreement on key state and local government issues.

The GFOA joined other national associations representing local governments on a letter (see below) to the Senate urging support for the Marketplace and Internet Tax Fairness Act (MITFA, S. 2609). This legislation, introduced by a group of bipartisan senators on July 15, 2014, would combine the Marketplace Fairness Act that passed the Senate last year with a 10-year extension of the moratorium on Internet access taxes that is set to expire November 1, 2014.

Last week, a bipartisan group of House lawmakers introduced legislation (H.R. 5199) that would permanently raise the issuer limit on bank-qualified bonds from $10 million to $30 million. The legislation, which breathes new life into the effort to restore the annual issuer limit to $30 million, is the culmination of several months of work by GFOAs Federal Liaison Center with the offices of congressmen Tom Reed (R-NY), Randy Hultgren (R-IL), John Larson (D-CT) and Richard Neal (D-MA).

On July 23, 2014, the SEC voted 3-2 to approve a final rule on its 2013 proposal to institute reforms to money market mutual funds. The commissions final rule contains a number of components that were included in its 2013 proposal  which the GFOA opposed and commented on in an independent letter and as part of a state and local association coalition last fall. (See both letters below.) Such provisions require institutional prime, retail, and municipal (tax-exempt) funds to maintain a floating net asset value instead of a stable NAV, which had existed previously.